Mojave National Park and Journey to the Grand Canyon

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Got up early and did the washing. Great laundry room in the hotel - only $1.50 for a wash and $1 for the dryer. The machine was a top loader which was strange but i preferred it. What else is strange in America? The highways are mostly 6 lanes, everyone drinks coffee and all the rooms have a fresh coffee maker with individual sachets of fresh coffee, they don’t use shower gel - only soap, drivers use their horn a lot, the American trucks are beautiful, there are no small cars anywhere, there is no international news on the TV everything is all American, the majority of the shop workers and hotel staff are Mexican looking, everyone is really polite and helpful and nothing seems too much trouble, they all say have a nice day and mean it.
Left San Diego which was a shame because i felt i would like to see more of it, we didn’t see the old town and i would have liked another day on the beach. Got petrol $3.09 gallon and bought a roll for breakfast, which was chicken with mashed up beans and help yourself to the salad bar for $1.29. I like a bargain! Mind you the boys also bought crisps and chocolate which wasn’t cheap. Crisps here are called chips and chips are called French fries. Great journey, the roads are really fast and straight and hold ups are rare. The only annoying thing in the towns is that there are traffic lights at the end of very block. Lots of great views on the way, passed what we thought was a lake and when we got close realised it was a solar electricity station. Passed the longest trains I have ever seen on the Pacific railroad, all container trucks - I counted 89 of them. Got as far as Barstow and stopped at a tourist info to pick up some details on the desert. Took a detour into the Mojave National park which went against my last resolve of sticking to the plan, but this time it was good. Passed a sign that said ‘Slow - tortoises crossing’ but we didn’t see any. Drove to the Kelso sand dunes which i have to say were not as impressive as Dune de Pyla in France but may have been if we had made it to the top. It took us quite a while to walk to the dunes through golden sand, the temperature was 41oC, we had no water, Andy had no sugar and we were running out of time as for the first time, we hadn’t got anywhere booked for the night. It was fascinating seeing all the animal tracks in the sand but the only things we saw were lizards and some sort of rat. The vegetation is desert scrub - small bushes interspersed with Yucca plants and a few cacti. Saw some Joshua trees on the way. Stopped for petrol and ice creams, petrol here is $3.39. Made it to Needles which thankfully was a bigger town than the others we have passed through and our AAA tour book recommended several places. Got in on the first one for $45 a night. The room was just like the other travelodge type places but we also had a fridge and a microwave. No coffee maker but coffee was free in reception, free internet and free parking. It makes me wonder about these expensive hotels that charge extra for parking and internet. We couldn’t believe the heat that hit us when we got out at 7.30pm; it was like opening the oven door, the boys loved it. Went to Denny’s for dinner as the hotel gave us a 10% discount but it was so cold in there we had to go back to the car for our jumpers. I had chicken and mashed potatoes and sweet corn, Andy had fish, Steve had chicken fajitas and Nick had an omelette. They love their mashed potato over here and it is often served with main courses, not plain though, it always has cheese, onion or garlic. I think i will try jazzing up my mash at home. For pud i had French toast, bananas and caramel sauce (forget the calories) Steve had the cheesecake and Nick had carrot cake which is also very popular here. I haven’t seen any Pecan pie yet. Andy had an Oreo milkshake. Went back to the hotel and just got time for a swim before it closed at 10pm. The water felt cold because the air was so warm. Sat in the hot tub but it was too hot!

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